Giles Duley's photographs of refugees' journeys – in pictures

More than a million refugees travelled from the Middle East to Europe in 2015. Photojournalist Giles Duley recorded some of their stories, collected in his new book, I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See

Observer event: Stories from the frontlineThursday 29 June, 7pm, at the Guardian offices, London N1Giles Duley joins the Observer’s Emma Graham-Harrison, the UNHCR’s Sybella Wilkes and Hassan Akkad, a teacher imprisoned by the Assad regime, to discuss the refugee crisis. For details or to book tickets go to membership.theguardian.com

Main image:
The words uttered again and again by those landing on the beaches of Lesvos are ‘Shefna el mot bi oyouna’ – ‘We saw death with our own eyes’.
Photograph: Giles Duley/UNHCR

Sat 3 Jun 2017 14.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 14 Apr 2018 13.54 EDT

‘An inflatable boat with around 40 refugees on board drifts helplessly towards the cliffs after its engine stalled. From where we stood, we could hear the screams as the boat took on water.’
Taken 29 October 2015

‘Efstratia and Irini take a walk along the Lesbos beach from Skala Sikaminias to visit a small transit camp, where each day they welcome refugees. Their own mothers arrived as refugees from Turkey in the 1930s. “When we see these children, we see our mothers. They were the same ages when they arrived here, with nothing.”’
4 November 2015

‘The refugees land in Lesbos with very little. What few possessions they had are normally thrown into the sea by the smugglers to allow for more people on the boat. Cold, wet and usually in shock, they make the journey to the first registration points on foot, with only emergency foil blankets to protect them from the cold.’
28 October 2015